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Okay I have read many of these post as have I read your guide to swain. In my honest opinion, Swain can be played in a number of was. This is what I really like about the champ. There are some things that I would like to talk about in concerns with your guide in comparison to my preferred play of him.

I have been playing swain for over a year now and have tried a number of different strategies in preparation for a game and tactics while in a game.

The first things that caught my eye from your summoners was the Ghost ignite. I can see where you are coming from with this, I would think it would be to better land (W) and get into team fights/ chasing someone down. In my personal opinion this can be down just as well with Flash + Alacrity on your boots. My reasoning is because swain has to get into the fights and avoid ganks because hard CC pre 6 is the death of him in lane and when trying to obliterate carries.

Ignite seems to be a staple on Swain for obvious reasons, but honestly I don't think it has to be used. There have been countless games that my ignite after I get a kill or two in mid/top it just falls off in team fights. I feel that though people won't agree with me that Teleport and Flash are a better combination on Swain. We all know that Swain is a crazy snowball champion. What has to be understood is that besides his ability not to be able to push lanes as hard to stop his opponent from ganking other lanes when he does leave lane he is punished by a pushed/lost mid turrent. Teleport allows for the quick turn of the tides into your teams favor and swain still gets fed so much in fact that he will not need ignite, again, in my opinion. Flash as the second summoner for reasons I listed above.

The last thing I want to talk about is items. For your items that would seem like they are great for starting on swain. I can not disagree with them at all. I do think that one area that swain lacks is in the area of AP ratios compared to other mids. Yes his E amps his damage but the feeling that you can get the kill always got to me. Because of this I would start out with a Blue Elixir and 4 health 2 mana. I know shocking to everyone who might read this but the elixir can be popped before you gank or move in on the mid target so it can be played situational giving you a 3 minute window to wreak everyone's face with a lot of AP + Cooldown on your side. Try it and find out.

I am no plat but I have had a lot of success on swain so I thought I would put my two cents in on this conversations about the champ I love who though he is underplayed I enjoy because it gives me more chance to play him. If your idea or even my ideas gets him more play, it will be a sad day but happy at the same time.

After thinking for a long time, it's so hard to just improve QOL with out buffing Swain.
But the problem is, Swain's core is so close to buff and QOL.(I mean, that QOL easily extend to buff.)

now, here's my suggestion now.
First, passive. It's good earily game, but bad late game. Why? Swain isn't a good farmer like normal AP, those last hits could be taken away by others easily. It's hard to let it work late game. Some adjust is reasonable.

Second, some people are complaining about his natural heath pool/mana pool/regen rate. But change that simply means "buff". I think the attack frame speed of his basic attack could be faster, and the E's flying speed can also increase, W's delay could be a little shorter. That would make Swain feeling better through out the whole game. The lesser raven could also fly faster, because, sometimes it's too late for the raven to fly back before he dies.

Third, this is a pain in the ass. Better wave clearing nearly equals to "buff" not "QOL". But Swain do lack of wave clearing. Maybe, let his ult do more damage against minions and monsters, but remains the same healing number in total??

Personally, I think Q, has longer CD than nunu's snowball,has lesser AP ratio ,but has longer CD, lesser slow percentage, and not a burst, should be buff. Lot's of AOE slow has better movement speed influence,and lots of single target slow, has shorter CD.
And W, if has some larger Diameter of Damage AoE, (well, sight reveal is OP to have on that skill)
or lower cool down so that we can use it to clear wave instead of hold it against ganks, or a "more slowtive" Q to escape ganks, will be much easier to farm and clear wave.

AS also DOT mages like Malzahar, no one think that he has problem with farming. But, if the skill is changed, the problem is will it be too OP?

Swain is a pretty powerful champion under the right circumstances, but is typically seen as unpopular. We generally attribute this to his 3 DoT spells and the one delayed skillshot, as deferred reward in our game are appreciated/valued less unless their power is pretty massive (think Death Mark)). That said, a few questions for you sir:

1. Do you feel like you don't have -enough- items to build? Which stats are most important to you as a Swain player? I've always felt like i needed Mana, Mana regen, Health, AP, CDR, Pen, and then Resists - and have often found it difficult to itemize overall.

2. Without buffing Swain (you can err on this a little), do you have any suggestions to make the lives of Swain players easier (QoL) or simply more fun? (PSA: We consider QoL typically as changes that smooth out a champion that aren't power-level focused - adding ratios, ranges, etc don't count typically)

3. What do you feel like is Swain's 'fantasy' as a game goes on - what do you feel defines him? Champions like Ezreal and Vayne want to dart around a fight dealing damage and kiting, Mages like Syndra and Veigar want to set up and then crush their opponent in one blow - what do you think is your 'I am Epic' moment for Swain?

3a. If you do have an endgame fantasy that you think fits Swain, do you think it's working out atm? Are there things you think we could do to improve on it?

(This isn't a precursor to a 'Let's Talk' thread or a Swain rework, just up late watching Gamescom and sincerely interested in what you'd answer as a Swain player.)

Let me know what you think.

After more games I played, I feel that the number of skill-damage is really OK, and how the skill work is good.
About fixing on QOL, maybe the diameter of his W can be a little bigger, so that he could hit the whole wave of minions at a time if cast correctly.(It's impossible to hit all of them now, like LUX )
and, his Q, maybe can be a little more "slow"?? I felt that nunu's snow ball is much more"slower" than that, a little bit will be enough.
and, um, his passive. Maybe can add MP ratio, and lower the basic number? And get like 3 times recovery when killing champion or assist?? I think this will make his passive also work in team fights.

AND the most important!! The attack animation is STRANGE on Swain. He has a weird delay, that minions often die before the thing hit them.